Socialize

Today is the 37th birthday of Brad Klipner, who writes the beer blog Beer in Baltimore. Brad also does marketing for Baltimore Beer Week and recently took a job as sales manager for DuClaw Brewing. Brad and I have corresponded numerous times but have not yet had an opportunity to drink a beer in person yet. Join me in wishing him a very happy birthday.

Monday’s ad is for National Premium, from 1948, a beer also known as “The Beer From Maryland!” I love pictorial maps and this one in 3D is especially cool. According to the ad, beer connoisseurs include National Premium “Among the greatest beers on earth.” I’m not so sure about that claim.

Notes: Baltimore County prohibits the sale on Sunday in some areas.
Montgomery County, Somerset County, Wicomico County, and Worcester County are alcoholic beverage control counties.
Garrett County prohibits the sale on Sunday except in some areas.
The sale of alcohol at grocery and convenience stores varies by county.
There are no dry counties, but some individual voting districts within counties restrict or prohibit alcohol on a local-option basis.

Friday’s ad is another baseball-themed ad, this one for National Bohemian. I think it’s fairly contemporary, just retro in design, because isn’t that Camden Yards in the illustration? And that opened in 1992. I’ve only been there once, when GABF went on the road for the first, and only, time several years ago. When I was a kid it was Memorial Stadium. That was the Earl Weaver days when I was a big Orioles fan and saw them play a few times.

Wedneday’s ad is for Baltimore’s National Bohemian Light Beer. It ran in Life magazine in 1959. The tagline is a mouthfull: “From Chesapeake Bay land of pleasant we bring you this quality beer.” And from the insets at the bottom, the Chesapeake Bay area was also the “land of fun,” the “land of history,” and the “land of good food.”

Wild Goose Brewing, which was purchased a few years ago, in 2006, by Flying Dog Brewery, will be closing down and no longer will be produced as a beer brand. In the same purchase, Flying Dog also acquired the Frederick Brewery, where they moved their headquarters to, which had purchased Wild Goose in the mid-1990s. A few more batches of Wild Goose IPA and that will be it for the 21-year old brand. Beer in Baltimore has the full story.

Monday we feature the fifth baseball-themed add, which will continue through the World Series. The ad is for Baltimore’s National Bohemian and specifically National Premium Beer. It’s hard to tell when the ad is from, because it shows a lot of old baseball memorabilia for the Baltimore Orioles. It’s at least after my childhood favorite player, Brooks Robinson, started playing — and that was 1955. Though it seems more likely it was after he became a legendary player, and I can’t say exactly when that happened. The tagline for the ad reads. “National Premium Beer. Our Name Says It. Our Taste Proves It.” After that, it’s all about the Orioles, which was my favorite baseball team growing up.

And I just pulled out the box of baseball cards that my mother didn’t manage to throw away and found my Brooks Robinson baseball card from the 1970 season, forty years ago.

Most of the details about today’s work of art are unknown to me, but despite that it still was too good not to feature. All I know is that it depicts an immigrant family, originally from the Netherlands, living in Baltimore, Maryland and was painted by the father of the family shown in the painting.

It apparently hangs in the museum of the Maryland Historical Society. Unfortunately, I can find no information about it on their website. They appear to have quite a few paintings online, but not knowing the artist or the title of the painting makes it a bit more difficult to find. I don’t even know when it was painted, but I’m guessing the late 1800s or the very early part of the 20th century.

Most of the adults have a beer in their hand. I count a total of nine glasses of beer. The couple in the center foreground look sickly, almost pale enough to be considered zombies. But it’s still a very compelling painting. If anyone has any actual details about the painting, please do let me know.

Tuesday’s ad is a maritime ad complete with the signal flags ships use to communicate with one another. The ad is from 1960 and is for National Brewing, from Baltimore. Did you know the Chesapeake Bay area is the “Land of Pleasant Living?” Me neither. I also love the unusual glass, no doubt chosen so we could see more of the poster of flags through it. The bottom stem looks a bit like an upside down bottle neck, doesn’t it?